October 9-15
By Berrett Walter (University of Vermont ’14)
On Tuesday evening after a day of lectures in out the field we drove into Cochrane to gather supplies for our up coming camping trip. The plan for the next 4 days was to go out and survey 9 lagunas and divide the laguna into multiple quadrants each with a survey point where groups of students would observe bird activity at dawn and dusk in the following weeks. We broke up into four different cooking groups and descended upon the food store to gather food for the next 4 days in the field. We enjoyed one last good meal at a local restaurant before driving back to base camp.
On Wednesday morning we got up and started packing clothes, gear, tents, and food into our packs. We loaded up our three cars and headed out. We drove to Lago Pepa and set up camp for the night on the water’s edge. Once camp was established some of us went to go survey the lake and mark vantage points on the GPS for the up coming surveys. While the rest of the group else stayed back and made dinner.
While packing the trucks on Thursday morning we were greeted by a flock of Austral Parakeets that perched in the trees above us. We drove a short way down the road to survey our next laguna. While walking down the road next to the laguna Ryan spotted a small frog that we were unable to identify with our field guides and believe it to be a possible new species. We drove out to the parking spot from where we would hike out and do an overnight backpack in order to survey a laguna further off the road. We ate lunch at the cars and hiked one kilometer to the first laguna. We hiked the distance of the laguna marking vantage points as we went. After hiking another 2 kilometers to the second laguna we had reached our campsite for the night.
Friday morning, we took a silent walk down the length of the laguna thinking of possible vantage points and how to best divide up the laguna. Once at the end we walked back marking the vantage points as we went. Once back at camp we packed up and hiked out. On the hike out we observed an abandoned nest inside the cavity of tree with a mouse tail hanging out the entrance. We believed that the nest had belonged to an Austral Pygmy Owl, especially since we saw an owl in the same grove of trees the day before. After lunch at the cars we drove to our second laguna of the day. This laguna was different from the others, the water was murky, and there was minimal bird and plant life. The land surrounding the laguna was littered with guanaco bones. On the way back to the cars we were lucky enough to spot 2 culpeo foxes in the grass. We observed them grooming each other for about 10 minutes before making our way back to the cars. We arrived at our third laguna of the day, and had a short hike up a steep hill to view the laguna. Immediately we saw 11 silvery grebes and 4 Andean ruddy ducks. After completing the survey we drove to El Puesto, an old ranch house from the estancio that used to be in the valley. We enjoyed the luxuries of the wood stove that night.
We awoke to a cold morning with frost on the tents. We departed with the plan to survey 3 lagunas. The first laguna required a roundabout route to find an easier way up the steep hills that the laguna was nestled in. After the survey and lunch we had a short hike to the second laguna. While surveying the lake we came across a great grebe’s nest that was constructed of interwoven grasses, floating over a submerged tree. We hiked another 2 kilometers to the third and final laguna. We hiked back to camp where we made dinner and huddled around the wood stove. The next morning we again woke up to frost covered tents. We broke down camp and made our way back to base camp. We had hoped to arrive back to finished bathrooms at base camp, but a pipe had frozen and burst, so we will have a few more smelly days before we can expect to enjoy a shower. After everything was unloaded from the trucks and tents were set back up, we all lounged out in the sun like lizards and worked on our Grinnell journals. In the up coming weeks we plan to have few days of lectures and then start on our laguna surveys.